Page 27 of Fixed Asset

I sucked in a breath and braced for Jack’s ire. “That’s why I felt safe-ish offering myself up. That, and I researched the gangs in the area. I had a plan. I knew which territory I needed to be in when it happened. My location would be monitored. The CIA would get new intel on where the newer gangs were conducting business, and my location would be leaked in hopes Berta would be lured out of hiding. If not, an extraction team would be sent in to get me.”

Jack’s jaw was clenched tight, the muscle in his cheek jumping.

He wasn’t pissed, he was murderous.

“Go on,” he gritted through his fury.

“The urgency of the intel never made sense.”

“Stop,” Fallon said. “You’re boxed in, focused on the intel, instead of looking at the whole picture. Start at the beginning. That’s where the problem starts.”

Damn. He was right.

But I needed to move to think.

I glanced back at Jack and asked, “Honey, can you let me go? I need to move to think.”

My slip-up didn’t compute until Jack’s face went soft, his eyes gentled, and he gave my arm a soft squeeze before he let me go.

Damn, I wanted to kiss him. Or grab him and drag him back upstairs. Or maybe hug him.

“Cat?” Mason called.

“Right. Okay.” I clawed my hands through my hair. “I left the Marshals Service after Vegas. I needed a change. I was approached by a woman named Jasmin Parker—”

“Nightstalker approached you?” Fallon asked, followed by a low whistle. “And you turned down working for Z Corps?”

I didn’t bother asking Fallon how he knew Jasmin or Z Corps. I figured everyone in the private security sector knew who Zane Lewis was, and his teams. Further, I didn’t need to ask how he knew I’d turned down the job; Zane’s dislike of the CIA was legendary.

Instead, I told him, “Yes. I decided I didn’t want to be tied down to a team. I wanted to be free to take the jobs I wanted to take and not ones assigned to me. I’ve spent my professional life on the receiving end of orders. I needed a change, but I have valuable skills I didn’t want to go to waste. I hadn’t yet decided exactly what I was going to do, when an old CIA contact from my Army days reached out and asked if I would be interested in a solo mission.”

“How did this person know you were a free agent?” Mason interjected.

Good question.

“I’ve known Tom for years. He was the case officer on a terrorist threat in London I helped with. Over the years, I’ve consulted on other cases for him. I was never fully read into the situation, but given enough information to give my opinion. All of that to say, I know Tom, he takes spy games to the extreme, so when I asked how he knew I’d left the SOIB, and his answer was he had his ways, I didn’t push because I knew it would get me nowhere. I actually assumed Jasmin’s approach tipped Tom off.”

I wasn’t positive the CIA watched Z Corps that closely. It wasn’t like Zane Lewis was a criminal, but he sure as hell had his hand in everything worth knowing. Surely they kept an eye.

Mason dipped his chin, so I went on.

“I met Tom at a strip mall in Virginia. Typical CIA off-site location. Nothing out of the ordinary. I already had all the proper clearances from the Marshals Service. I didn’t need a higher level of clearance since my mission isn’t a matter of national security, more a friendly gesture to an ally. That was how it was presented.”

I turned on my heel and started pacing.

Where’s the problem? Why isn’t it coming to me?

“Berta had asked the CIA to find a man for her. She wanted his location. Well, they found him and have been trying to reach out to her for six months. Tom said it was urgent Berta get this man’s location. But why? Why now, when it wasn’t urgent six months ago? We’ve had months to send in an operations officer to get this intel to her.” I stopped pacing, looked at Jack, and asked again, “Why now?”

“Without knowing who, I can’t answer that. Maybe this man is now in danger. Maybe she gave them a time frame for this intel to be delivered and they’re running out of time? There could be a plausible explanation.”

“Derek Nicolson,” I blurted out.

“Come again?” Mason grunted.

“I have Derek’s location.”

“No, you don’t,” Mason denied.